News:

"There is a terrible desperation to the increasingly pathetic rationalizations from the climate denial camp. This comes as no surprise if you take the long view; every single undone paradigm in history has died kicking and screaming, and our current petroleum paradigm 🐉🦕🦖 is no different. The trick here is trying to figure out how we all make it to the new ⚡ paradigm without dying ☠️ right along with the old one, kicking, screaming or otherwise." - William Rivers Pitt

After months of bellicose rhetoric and fears of nuclear war, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have agreed to historic face-to-face talks. Independent journalist Tim Shorrock and Christine Ahn of Women Cross DMZ discuss the prospects for an agreement and the overlooked role of South Korea in getting both sides to the table

Qatar is under pressure to bury an undercover Al Jazeera documentary that exposes the Israel Lobby in the US. Asa Winstanley of the Electronic Intifada says the film's key revelations include the close cooperation between the neocon Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Israeli government

The writing has been on the wall in big block letters from the earliest moments of the Trump era 😈🐉🦕🦖. In May 2017, in his first town hall meeting with State Department staff, Tillerson 🦖 warned that human rights should not become an obstacle in the US pursuit of national interests, a shot across the department's bow that contributed to a wave of subsequent resignations. Similarly, the administration's first National Security Strategy barely mentioned human rights.

Meet Neocon John Bolton 👹, the Most Hawkish National Security Adviser Imaginable

Trump's new national security adviser John Bolton, an architect of the Iraq War, is an extreme hawk who wants to bomb Iran and North Korea and demanded regime change in Libya, Syria, and Venezuela - Ben Norton reports.

LONDON — Intensifying Russia’s clash with Europe and the United States, the Kremlin on Thursday announced that it would expel 150 Western diplomats and close the American consulate in St. Petersburg.

The action was in retaliation for the expulsion of more than 150 Russian officials from other countries — which was itself a reaction to a nerve-agent attack on British soil that Britain and its allies have blamed on Moscow.

The United States ambassador to Russia, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, announced. Sixty American diplomats will be expelled from Russia — the same as the number of Russian diplomats whom Washington is expelling. The Americans were given until April 5 to leave the country.

The crisis over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter has driven tensions between the Kremlin and the West to their highest pitch in decades. The tit-for-tat responses raise the prospect of further, more serious escalations, either public or clandestine.

Relations were already rocky over Moscow’s roles in the wars in Syria and Ukraine, its annexation of Crimea, its meddling in elections in the United States and elsewhere, the assassination of Kremlin foes in Russia and abroad, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns against other countries and what Western officials have described as a broad, largely covert effort to destabilize and discredit liberal democracies.Continue reading the main storyRelated Coverage

Yulia Skripal, Poisoned Daughter of Ex-Spy, Is Out of Critical Condition MARCH 29, 2018 Scores of Russians Expelled by U.S. and Its Allies Over U.K. Poisoning MARCH 26, 2018 Britain Expels 23 Russian Diplomats Over Ex-Spy’s Poisoning MARCH 14, 2018

Recent Commentsuw 1 minute ago

It was expected. Washington reaction to expel Russians was outside of any reason and was based on flimsy pretextDJS1955 1 minute ago

All of this is due to the lack of leadership on the part of the U.S in responding to and setting limits on previous outrageous activities of...Midwest Josh 1 minute ago

Jon Huntsman should be in his 2nd term as President, not currently our Ambassador to Russia. He was the smartest guy on stage in 2012. By...

Russia as a whole and many powerful Russians individually are already under economic sanctions by the West, and London has vowed to tighten its scrutiny and control of the vast Russian wealth — much of it held by allies of President Vladimir V. Putin — that has flowed into Britain in recent years. Britain has also said it will re-examine several suspicious deaths of Kremlin opponents.

Mr. Putin and his government have denied any involvement in the March 4 attack on Sergei V. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, and have tried to cast blame on Britain, the United States, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and others.PhotoThe United States consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia, will be closed, the Kremlin announced. Credit Olga Maltseva/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Skripals were found unconscious in a busy shopping area in the small English city of Salisbury, where Mr. Skripal lives. He remains hospitalized in critical condition, but his daughter is showing improvement, British officials announced on Thursday. British officials say that hundreds of people could have been exposed to Novichok, the toxin used against the Skripals.

Mr. Lavrov said that Russia had called for a meeting next Tuesday of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to discuss the Skripal case.

Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain and her government contend that the pair were poisoned with one of an extremely powerful class of nerve agents known as “Novichok,” developed by Soviet scientists in the 1970s and ’80s. They claim to have solid evidence that Russia was probably behind the attack, and that Mr. Putin himself probably approved it.

Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.

The British government has not made its evidence public, but has shared it with major allies, who have said that they agree with London’s conclusions. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international body that polices a chemical weapons ban treaty, is investigating.

President Trump, who has long been loath to criticize Mr. Putin or his government, has made no public statement on the nerve-agent attack or who was to blame for it. But officials in his administration have publicly backed Mrs. May’s statements, and on Monday the president ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian officials who work in the United States, and the closing of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

More than 20 other countries, primarily European, also announced expulsions on Monday, and a few more joined in on Tuesday, as did NATO headquarters in Brussels. The expulsions were a remarkable show of international unity and coordination, in solidarity with Britain, which had already forced 23 Russian officials to leave the country; Moscow responded by expelling 23 Britons.

In all, 27 countries are ejecting more than 150 Russians, including people listed by their embassies and consulates as diplomats, and military and cultural attachés. Western officials say that many of the Russians are spies and that the expulsions will hinder Russian espionage efforts.

Mr. Skripal, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was imprisoned in Russia for selling secrets to the British, was sent to Britain in 2010 as part of a spy swap. Why he would be targeted years later is unclear, but political and security analysts have said that the attack served as a warning to those who would cross Mr. Putin that, even in exile, they are never beyond the Kremlin’s reach.

On March 12, Nikolai A. Glushkov, a former Russian business executive and critic of the government, died suddenly at his home in London, and the police are treating the case as a murder investigation.

Yulia Skripal, Poisoned Daughter of Ex-Spy, Is Out of Critical Condition MARCH 29, 2018 Scores of Russians Expelled by U.S. and Its Allies Over U.K. Poisoning MARCH 26, 2018 Britain Expels 23 Russian Diplomats Over Ex-Spy’s Poisoning MARCH 14, 2018

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Leges Sine Moribus VanaeFaith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.

Highlights from TRNN's event honoring MLK on the 50th anniversary of his assassination, featuring his 1967 speech, "Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam," and a discussion with actor Danny Glover, Our Revolution President Nina Turner, and Executive Producer Eddie Conway

Russia Furious As U.S. Navy Destroyer Approaches Syria Without Notification"Moreover, US President Donald Trump said that he would think about the missile attack on Syria despite any resolutions at the UN Security Council. All this smells of something are outside the framework of universally recognised international norms," Shamanov added...

However, after yesterday news that the office of Trump's personal lawyer was raided by the FBI and that attorney-client privilege between Trump and Cohen may be compromised, it now appears that in a desperate diversion attempt from his domestic troubles, a military response against Syria by Trump is now inevitable...

That Trump will declare war and condemn all of us to death to defend his position and ego is a given. What is incorrect is the assertion "that attorney-client privilege between Trump and Cohen may be compromised." It is most emphatically NOT.

Note that, according to the American Bar Association, conversations between attorney and client when there is reason to suspect both are involved in an ongoing criminal activity are NOT actually protected by law and are subject to investigation. It's called the Crime-Fraud Exception, which says: The legal community does not deem discussions concerning future wrongdoings, such as fraud, that occur during an attorney-client communications worthy of protection. While the practice of law encourages full and frank communications between the attorney and client, ONLY communications concerning past wrongdoings are protected.

Make of that what you will.

Surly,

I didn't know about the Crime-Fraud Exception. Thanks for the info.

Webster Tarpley has an interesting take on what Trump's reaction will be when he finds his family jewels in a vice grip. Tarpley believes Trump is a coward and will fold under any real pressure, NOT from Russia, but from the Pentagon war lovers that surround him.

That, of course, ends up resulting in more warlike moves, regardless of what Trump wants to do to distract we-the-people.

All that said, I believe the war lovers at the Pentagon are more rational than Trump. Their whole SCAM (that began with 911) is OPERATION ENDURING MEGA-PENTAGON BUDGET. So, they always want some level of war excuse going on that continues to fleece us on behalf of weapons manufacturers, but, is never on the scale that actually would require all-out war.

The problem with that too clever by a half calculation is that constant saber rattling is precisely what has ALWAYS triggered massive conflicts in the past.

Many will disagree with me on this, but I am certain that Trump will be removed from office by hook or by crook if he does not do what the M.I.C. wants him to do. Trump, though the trumpers were fooled into thinking he was an "outsider", IS a creature of the Deep State.

These creatures are not always obedient to their masters in our disguised military dictatorship. The moment they step out of line, a "lone nut" shows up. Nobody wants to talk about it, but that is precisely how they "reined in" Reagan in when he started making noises the Bush powers that be did not like.

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Leges Sine Moribus VanaeFaith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.

Even with WW3 maybe only HOURS away, you are still all laughing and joking about the possible Death of the World.

My take on the possibility of WW3 with Captain Cheeto at the helm is that it ain't gonna happen.

Besides that, we have a global economy now. That economy is balanced by all of the fuckers at the top across all of the nations. Murika is the bully in charge of that with Captain Cheeto head bully in charge. He makes a real good bully. He's stupid and doesn't know it, and he's weak.

Anyways, I listen to the Murikan news on satellite radio these days. I do that to hear human voices in conversation because even I get lonely driving this truck. I listen to Fox, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, and NPR. They are all full of ****, and I get a good laugh listening to their "fair and balanced" propaganda bullshit. They are very good at getting you to believe their bullshit. But it's all bullshit and it's bad for you. I don't believe any of it.

Yesterday I listened to the entire Zuckerberg hearing, and all of the Senators with their questions. Interesting. Apparently Swampbook doesn't sell data...lol...according to Suckerburg. He also seems like a likable fella. I found myself thinking, as I listened to our senators, that maybe democracy is working. Maybe it's not a Corporatocracy running everything. Then I laughed at myself for thinking something so preposterous.

I don't think we are going to have WW3, especially not nuclear WW3. Nobody wins with nuclear WW3, and that's why I think that. Even the .0001% lose in that case. They will all just "saber rattle" and take conventional pop shots at each other. Captain Baby Cheetos will keep tweeting his digital diarrhea, and nobody will take him seriously with exception to the members of the global idiocracy.

Eventually war will happen in Murika. It will happen when gas and diesel stop being viable at the pumps. When the fuel drys up for the masses we will have the end. There will be massive civil unrest, looting, and rednecks and gangbangers out shootin' it all up. When the gas dries up it's over. Until that happens BAU will just keep on keepin' on in all corners of the world. Unless, that is, the world shakes us off like flees with climate change or some over natural disaster with global scope.

The only ends I see are two. Either we run out of viable fuel or the biosphere puts an end to it. We won't have global war, not until either of the two options I just mentioned happen.

A Collapse that has a nuclear strike on 12 April 2018 could have been stopped if you had got off your asses in 1980 and acted bravely, and no I don't mean by voting for Carter. You've had Earth First, The Weathermen, Tim McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, Ploughshares, to inspire you, but you told yourself jokes and stuck to safe subjects for discussion instead.

Without WW3, Collapse would play out very differently. THAT is what billionaires can't stop. But YOU could have stopped WW3 if you had bothered.

Damn, I already wrote about this in my lost post. LOL.

Short version...I have definite regrets. I could have gone a different way, and at this point I do regret not becoming more of an activist. I never thought things would get to where we are now so fast. I knew it was likely, even when I was 16. But I thought collapse was in the very distant future. I knew about Silent Spring. I knew about Bucky Fuller. But where I lived there was no real movement to join. I only read about such things in the Whole Earth Catalog.

By 1980 my course was set. I'd have had to change course in 1974. I even thought about moving to the Farm back then. I liked what they were doing. But it wasn't like now. I couldn't email Albert Bates like I can now. I led a very isolated life, far from most like-minded people. I lived in my head a lot, and still do.

I'm not a joiner or a crusader. I've always been cynical about politics anyway. I didn't start voting at all until 1980, and I was trying to prove myself wrong about it being useless. That's why I did it. So nobody could say I didn't participate.

I hope somewhere in the multiverse there is a version of the US of A that listened to Bucky and didn't vote for Ronnie Raygun. Instead they got an early handle on PO and climate change...and managed to create some kind of society that didn't starve most people while making a few people wildly affluent. I really do hope that world is real, and maybe I can be born into that in my next incarnation. This earth is a cooked goose, and it's all over but the dying, which will commence soon enough.

I didn't change the world, but I get the lesson. Getting the lesson, to me, might be just as important as changing the world.

Eddie and Lucid,

GREAT posts! :

I agree WWIII ain't gonna happen. That said, I would LOVE to see the price of oil go to $300 a barrel! $1000 a barrel would be even better!

But, if that does not happen within a couple of years, the climate is going to GIT us. Sure, it will take a while to git most of us and a few of us may make it all the way through. I do not find that to be much of a consolation. 😓

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Leges Sine Moribus VanaeFaith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.

It's not that close. Maybe 4 or 5 hours to the closest border town, which from here is Piedras Negras, I think.

And yes, I've spent some time in Mexico, and I've read what a couple of ex-pats have written about living there. But I never learned the language (a failing of mine, it would even help me here, of that there is little doubt). I have enjoyed my trips to Mexico, but I haven't seen even a fraction of it.

And places I used to go with no worries are not at all safe anymore. When I was young, hippie kids went to the market in Matamoros in droves and we bought our huaraches and wedding shirts and a lot of junk. I went to Acuna, and I bought a very bad guitar when I was 16. That's the shithole where they shot the movie Mariachi. I wouldn't go there at all now. People get shot all the time.

I love Merida and Tulum, and even Cozumel, even though it's not nearly as cool as it was 30 years ago. Neither is Chichen Itza, but its still a place where you can feel the power of what it once was. Enough human sacrifices in one place, and it leaves a kind of creepy psychic residue that's palpable. I felt that anyway, and I'm fairly skeptical about such things.

I've been through the jungle to the pyramids at Coba and Ek Balam. I've swum in deep clear sinkholes and eaten Octopus ceviche at the Casa Cenote by the Cenote Manatee on Tanka Bay. There's a tiny hotel there I used to dream of buying, but I never had that kind of money.

I'm no expert, but I have met prominent people who do what I do in Mexico, and I can tell you only the connected doctors who are from rich families and cater to rich families make real money. There is no middle class in Mexico. I couldn't make a living there.

The co-founder of this site, Peter, lost his life savings trying to make an ex-pat life in Mexico, from what I understand, and had to return to Canada. RE knows more of that story than I do.

There are some intentional communities in Mexico that I've investigated. Like the ones everywhere else, they're a mixed bag, and you have to buy in to participate, and the ones I saw aren't cheap.

As an alternative living place, I'd pick BC over Mexico, or David's northern Ontario cottage country. Or C5's Maritime country. But, I have ties to this place. Lots of good reasons for staying, at least for the moment.

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Leges Sine Moribus VanaeFaith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.

World War III: The False Narrative that Fuels Conflict in Syria and Beyond

by TDB

Thu, 04/12/2018 - 11:34

Via The Daily Bell

SNIPPET 1:

The timing is fit for a movie plot climax!

Just as Trump announced intentions to get out of Syria, Assad did something unspeakable. According to Assad’s opposition, the Syrian government “once again” used chemicals weapons on civilians.

At a time when the war is almost won for Assad, he decided to re-ignite international calls for his ouster by senselessly murdering about the same number of civilians the Las Vegas Shooter killed. Seems logical, right?

Well, there goes the Syrian exit! 😇 😈

SNIPPET 2:

CNN reported in 2012 that America was involved in training the rebels to secure and monitor chemical weapons sites.

Quote

The United States and some European allies are using defense contractors to train Syrian rebels on how to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria, a senior U.S. official and several senior diplomats told CNN Sunday.

The training, which is taking place in Jordan and Turkey, involves how to monitor and secure stockpiles and handle weapons sites and materials, according to the sources. Some of the contractors are on the ground in Syria working with the rebels to monitor some of the sites, according to one of the officials.

This confirms that rebel forces had access to chemical weapons and that the U.S. helped familiarize rebel groups with storing and transporting the weapons.

And now, with the rebels almost defeated, someone decided to use chemical weapons against a few dozen civilians.

And everyone had to know that this was the most likely way to drag the U.S. deeper into the conflict.

SNIPPET 3:

There are No Good Guys

It is important to remember that there are no “good guys and bad guys” here. Arguably, they are all bad guys.